Broken Melody
by Shadow Priesstes
Summary: A series of brutal killings, grousome secrets long ago burried between the silent walls of the Nightray household raise to the surface, lust, obsession, jaelousy and love are the threads building the lines of a Dark Fairy Tale...
1. Prologue

A/N: well then, this is again a double posted story which can be found here and also on my Acconunt on . Firstly I would like to advise everyone that I meant the posted warnings and thus who has a problem with them then they shouldn't read this story, the rating is also not thought as a joke…

Warning: death, blood, gore, torture, mentions of past rape, angst, abuse and psychological manipulation…

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><p><em><span>Prologue<span>_

„_Lay down my child, close your eyes and let sleep come on soft wings, _

_the fullmoon laughs merrily above, ferries invite to they dance. _

_So close your eyes dear little child, but take good care, _

_the ferries call might be sweet, but danger is ahead. _

_Your dream will become a nightmare if you follow. _

_So sleep child and watch the white lambs, _

_sleep and never follow the sweet call, _

_or they will lead you into a nightmare…" _

A cold night has broken in over London, the mist showing dark illusions to the unfortunate ones whom had nowhere to go or were forced to work to earn they bread. The red-light district of the capital was in some ways similar to the poor districts with narrow streets where the garbage piled up, but the crisp night air was filled with the stench of opium, cigar smoke, alcohol, shattered hopes and sex.

Woman and also man of various ages stood outside the battered buildings doing anything to gain the interest of a possible costumer and the chance of getting paid. No price was to high for these cast away souls. And no price was to expensive to pay for they costumers, who come here alone or with they friends to amuse themselves on the body of those who had no choice if they didn't want to hunger or run around only in rags all day.

A man in an expansive tailored suit was walking though the street, ignoring the sweet calls of the many prostitutes, he was currently measuring his options and he wanted the best fun tonight so he needed to be picky. Then his eyes found finally the perfect beauty he had been looking for. Fixing his tie and tipping the black velvet cylinder in to the right position started the man to approach the delicate night butterfly standing at the corner with her bare back against the cold stone wall.

"My sweet flower, you might catch a cold by doing that, let me escort you to someplace warmer. I promise you, you will be warmed up in a mare of minutes." he said silkily as the woman turned to him with a koy smile on red painted lips.

"I thank you for your kind offer sir." she said, her voice sweet like honey as she pushed her body away form the wall "I'm sure that we will take good care of each other tonight…"

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><p>"HEAR, HEAR, A NEW GROUSOME MURDERER IN THE RED-LIGHT DISTRICT! READ EVERYTHING ABOUT THE MURDERER HERE!" called out the newspaper boy on the busy street to the ones passing by. Thought even without the yelling would have many stopped to buy the newspaper seeing that these murderers were since a whole month the hot topic of everyone may they be noble or commoner.<p>

A large carriage was driving through the morning street, the sound of the whip mixing with the sound of the lively chatter of the waking London. Inside the comfortable compartment sat dear while three men with two looking uneasily at they higher up who was staring out of the window with a scowl plastered on his face.

These mysterious murderers in the red-light district were keeping the whole Scotland Yard on they feet every night, but the culprit is never caught no matter what they do, the only thing they get are the victims.

Dead, they faces mangled…

If someone would have dared asking Inspector Hawkins what he wants to do about the case, don't get it wrong he was a good officer, he would have sent more undercover men to investigate. Saddly were the Queen and the higher ups a different option so they told him to bring one of the Four Noble Houses in to the case. At least did they give him the right to choose which of them. The Inspector scowled again, he didn't want to waste they precious time to get one of those eccentric and most of the time questionable nobles to work with them. The Vessalius family was a bunch of dorks in his option, the Nightrays were all shady characters, the Rainsworth had at the time mostly women in it and they scared men to death so that only left one family…

ugh…

When the carriage stopped nodded Inspector Hawkins to the two officers accompanying him as all three of them stepped outside, facing the large steel gates of the Barma mansion.

_To be continued…_


	2. Blood Roses

A/N: outside is it raining which is just fine with me while I get the new chapter done mixed with Yousei Teikoku's song _Kokou no Sousei…_

P.S.: I'm curious if everyone already figured out who the murderer is.

_I. Chapter: Blood Roses _

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><p>„<em>Did you know, that the drops of blood on fresh snow look just like red roses?" <em>

Inspector Hawkins was still scowling while his two companions were staring with awe at the finely crafted iron gate. They were from lower middle class families who hadn't had much to do with the nobles so was this something really new for the two young men. Well they were only in they early twenties so they had time to learn, Hawkins on the other hand was by the Yard since good twenty-five years, he was somewhat plump with slightly greying brown hair and moustache.

"Now where the ruddy hell is the bell on this damned gate?" he asked in annoyance, that thing was like thrice his size and he would be damned if someone saw him climbing up that thing.

"Inspector, maybe we could shout for someone to come and open it." suggested one of the two sergeants with him, but he shrank back behind his colleague by the look his superior sent him. Luckily for them had the inspector no time to also stat his retort because of a new voice interrupting them.

"There would be no need for such trivial things sirs." whirling around they were greeted by the sight of a young man with short blondish hair, piercing eyes were looking at the three men from behind his glasses. He wore a slightly strange looking white suit with gold trimming. He was watching them silently, standing straight and calm and…were those things earrings? Within seconds were the gates open and the man, who they assumed to be the head butler, stepped aside. "Please step in, Lord Barma is already waiting for you inside so please hurry." and with that was he already leading the way through the exotic looking garden.

Walking through the long halls of the mansion felt Hawkins a new wave of irritation nearing as he felt them getting nearer to met the man to whom most would refer to as a walking ice block and let's not forget the rumours about the true cause for the deaths of the former Duke and Duchess Barma. One suicide whiles the other most likely murderer. Getting through the maze like halls found the four men themselves in a large room decorated mostly in red and silver colours, with the expectations of the large bookshelves and the grand piano in front of the large windows covering an entire wall being made out of ebony. There not far from the piano stood the man they were looking for, Duke Rufus Barma. The man's back was facing them as he stood in front of a silver cage, holding a hand out as if placing something inside and then closing the door carefully.

"Sir, Inspector Hawkins from Scotland Yard has arrived." stated the butler bowing, his gaze fixated on the figure by the cage from which the sound of a lorikeet could be heard.

"My dear Inspector, I probably can't even try imagining how much mental effort it had taken you to come and see me in the case you are currently working at." come the cool monotone voice of the Duke as he turned around, making the two younger policemen take a step back as they ware now gazed at by a pair of crimson coloured eyes.

"There is nothing you need to imagine Sir Duke Barma, from the Four Great Dukedoms go the Barma family as the most knowledgeable in many fields." replied the Inspector sternly as he held the other's gaze. So it was true that the head of the Barma House bore the "Eyes of Misfortune".

"That is indeed correct." come the reply as the other opened a silver fan in front of his face, hiding half of it. "Of course I have already studied the case files and need to admit that the culprit had done a really impressive work with mutilating the faces of the victims which lets me to the guess that this is the connection between them."

"How come, the faces are not recogrinaizable anymore, how can that be the connection?" asked the young man on Hawkins's right, but immediately flinched by the three glares he received.

"As I said is that the connection, the murderer didn't kill for they riches because all things of value were still at they owners bodies, if you look at the bodies, they all seem to be more or less around the same age warring between twenty three and thirty five. All white, thin with slight muscles, pale peach skin tone, well groomed at least from what we saw from they nails and outfits. Can you follow me?" Rufus asked with a smirk behind his fan at which Hawkins scoffed while the other two were shocked that he got so many details out from the crime scene pictures and notes without being there with the police. It was frightening, but now they understood why they superior come here. "Good, now all this brings us to the only conclusion that the trigger for the choice of the victims lays in the fact that they faces were mutilated after they were murdered. It could be that all these men looked similar to someone and this is why the murderer choose them, but as they realized that they were different from the person with whom they compared them were they murdered and mutilated so that they don't look anymore similar to that person." finished Rufus as he sat down on the red velvet couch, one knee pulled up against his chest.

"There cold be something to it and it is at least more then some of my men managed to find out." grunted Hawkins feeling irritated at the Yard was being dragged in the mud here by that arrogant prick.

"Well, you shouldn't be to hard on then my good Inspector Hawkins seeing that they were probably to horrified by what they found and thus couldn't concentrate better on the job at hand." Rufus said before a strange glint appeared in his eyes which made the experienced policeman shudder. He had often seen that glint in the eyes of those whom had no qualms in torturing or murdering people. "I'm sure that the culprit will strike again tonight and I will be with you on the investigation." he said grinning while resting his head on his knee. "I wasn't so interested in a murder case since four members of the Nightray family got beheaded by the Head Hunter."

There was a minute of silence when the Duke's crimson eyes, the shade of blood as the inspector noted, looked at his servant whom seemed to understand the silent command then he was already bowing with a hand on his chest.

"Sirs, please follow me, I will escort you to the exit" he said before turning to his master "the carriage will be set for six o'clock sharp Master Rufus." When receiving a satisfied nod headed the four men into the long hallway and in the direction of the entrance.

Hawkins felt personally relieved that the meeting with that man had ended so fast and without incident. The Barma House was since long know to have dwelled in the fields of not only science and arts, but also dark magic and alchemy. Some even say that this is how the family first gained they fortune, but he didn't believe in magic and such absurd fairy tales, but one thing was for sure. That man was not normal in the head, but guessing that with those eyes even as a noble he had it not easy, in his long time by the Yard did he see some pretty vicious lynching on children not older then a few months whom had the misfortune to be born with red eyes. This might be the ground why the Duke of Barma was only rarely seen in public and even then in a strange disguise and of course in the company of Duchess Rainsworth. Now that he remembered it, the man looked fairly younger then he would have thought with him being one of the oldest Heads of a Dukedom and according to what he knew was he childhood friends with the aforementioned Duchess Rainsworth. Fine, no need to dwell on this, he had a case to solve, but when they finally stepped outside of the house a strange feeling come over him. It was the strange feeling one got when stepping out of a crypt into the warm sunlight. Yes, that house filled with so many antiquates, may they be furniture, pictures, statues or books, they made the place smell and feel like a closed of crypt where no life dwells which seemed to be true then he needed to note that bedside the Duke and his servant no other human soul seemed to inhabitant the large mansion.

"Here is your carriage Sirs, we will met each other tonight." the servant said while pushing his glasses up on his nose, expression still stern.

"Thank you, by the way I didn't catch your name lad." Hawkins said as he looked at the young man.

"The name is Reim Lunettes, personal servant of the House Barma." he answered back, gaze never leaving that of the older man whom nodded.

"Then good day to you Sir Lunettes." and with that were all three officers already inside the carriage which started moving.

"Inspector, do you think that this is a good idea to involve that man?" asked sergeant Brown, a young man with short brown hair, this was his first murder case.

"Unfortunately he is the only one we can depend on, I would not be all to pleased to have one of the Rainsworth women run around in the red light district "at this all three men paled, taking a noble woman to such a place was even in thought a taboo "In the case of the Vessalius family have I my doubts seeing that they Head is not to be found most of the time and his younger brother leading the Dukedom is acting like a grown kid, and the other two family members are still children and the Nightrays, they have to many ties to the underworld I'm sure about it." answered Hawkins sighing. "Hopefully will this case be finally solved."

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><p>At the same time in a dimly lit room was a figure sitting in front of the vanity mirror grooming through they long hair before reaching for the red lipstick.<p>

"Tonight I will go looking around for you again." the figure said smiling. "I will search for you, search for your love my beloved."

Standing up gracefully and brushing the red dress down reached a pale hand for the deep emerald scarf and wrapped it around the bare shoulders before giggling as they stepped to the door.

"I will find you my beloved and punish all those whom dare to present themselves as you."

The giggling faded as the door fell shut, leaving the room again covered in silence.

_To be continued…_


End file.
